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Marie-Dominique Chenu demonstrates how this once condemned theologian influenced the major shifts of twentieth-century Catholicism and reveals the relevance of his thought for contemporary theology.
In 1942, historian Marie-Dominique Chenu was removed from his teaching position at Le Saulchoir, the French Dominican school of theology, and his groundbreaking new publication was placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books. Yet only two decades later, the Catholic hierarchy embraced many of his ideas at the Second Vatican Council. Although Chenu’s pioneering work helped to usher in a new era, his influence on the Catholic Church remains overlooked and underexplored.
Drawing upon extensive new archival research, Mary Kate Holman provides a captivating account of Chenu’s life and how his theology contributed to the church’s opening to the modern world and shaped the next generation of theologians. Holman presents the distinctive elements of Chenu’s theology, identifies his major contributions to contemporary Catholic theology, and proposes a constructive retrieval of his thought for a renewed ecclesiology in the twenty-first century.
“A unique and necessary contribution to understand the last century of history of Catholic thinking: Chenu was at the center of the early repressions of theologians by the Holy Office during the twentieth century.” —Massimo Faggioli, author of A Council for the Global Church
“Mary Kate Holman’s outstanding book on the French theologian, historian, and pastor reveals profound discoveries and far-reaching perspectives for a church in synodal transformation.” —Michael Quisinsky, author of Marie-Dominique Chenu: Weg-Werk-Wirkung
"Holman’s book represents a real achievement. It engages a figure who embodies the best of 20th-century Catholic theology. Holman has made a notable mark on ressourcement theology and left serious theologians no excuse for forgetting the great Chenu." —America
"As firsthand memories of the Vatican II era continue to fade, the value of volumes like this one, which weaves together personal historical narrative with keen theological analysis, is sure to increase as successive generations of the theological community succeed. . . . Holman’s work does us great service in deepening our knowledge of this seminal figure of the Vatican II era." —Journal of Jesuit Studies
"Mary Kate Holman offers an intellectual biography and apologia for Chenu as a theologian and priest with relevance for today. Scholars and others will welcome this important book." —Homiletic and Pastoral Review
"Holman not only lays out Chenu’s historically conscious and inductive method but also appropriates it to engage his work and develop it. . . . Upon reading the book, one walks away with a sense that they have gotten to know something of the person of Chenu as well as the significance of his method." —Theological Studies
Mary Kate Holman is an assistant professor of religious studies at Fairfield University.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “There’s Only One Chenu”
1. At the Saulchoir: A Historically-Conscious Theology
2. Among Workers: A Socially-Engaged Theology
3. At The Edge of the Council: The Church in the Modern World
4. Post-Conciliar Signs of the Times: Toward an Inductive Theology
5. “A Fresh Source for Lived Faith”
Bibliography